Picture Hanging...

Terry and I listen/watch a General Conference together each day.  We started spending so much time trying to figure out what one to have featured each day or debating if we'd already heard it, that it seemed like we could have listened to a full talk, in the time we spent going back and forth.  So a few days ago we decided to start with the oldest available talks (1971) and start with April conference and systematically go through them.  A week or so into it and it's going good.

I've been impressed with so many things that have been said and I just have to share this one with you... it's fraught with wisdom!!!  Liking that word-- fraught! This is filled with wisdom!  

It's by Sterling W. Sill....

This philosophy of excellence was demonstrated by the artist Whistler, who once painted a tiny picture of a spray of roses. The artistry involved was magnificent. Never before, it seemed, had the art of man been able to execute quite so deftly a reproduction of the art of nature. The picture was the envy of the artists who saw it, the despair of the collectors who yearned to buy it for their collections, but Whistler refused steadfastly to sell it.

“For,” said he, “whenever I feel that my hand has lost its cunning, whenever I doubt my ability, I look at the little picture of the spray of roses and say to myself, ‘Whistler, you painted that. Your hand drew it. Your imagination conceived the colors. Your skill put the roses on the canvas.’ Then,” he said, “I know that what I have done I can do again.”

Then he gave us a great philosophy of success. He said, “Hang on the walls of your mind the memory of your successes. Take counsel of your strength, not your weakness. Think of the good jobs you have done. Think of the times when you rose above your average level of performance and carried out an idea or a dream or a desire for which you had deeply longed. Hang these pictures on the walls of your mind and look at them as you travel the roadway of life.”